Provo Council draws fire over cuts

PROVO — The Provo City Council on Tuesday cut funding for police cars and other equipment before approving the city's $156.1 million budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

Those decisions spurred criticism from Mayor Lewis K. Billings and chief administrative officer Wayne Parker, who said the council overstepped its bounds.

The budget was approved by a 5-2 vote, with Councilman Steve Turley and Councilwoman Midge Johnson dissenting. Billings said he'll work with the funding given, but he might be back for more.

Council Chairwoman Cynthia Dayton predicted ongoing budget discussions the upcoming fiscal year.

The city bosses also criticized the council for cutting out the currently vacant economic-development director and city engineer positions until February under a new mayor, while increasing the council budget.

Newly hired financial services officer Dirk Anderson said much of the council budget increase was his salary. Most other city departments showed a decrease.

For the first time, the City Council added its own priorities to the budget Billings proposed. Council members said those issues amounted to just a quarter of 1 percent of the total budget. Included was $155,000 for branding to boost downtown.

Billings said he'd rather see $105,000 of that go to his equipment budget while the branding effort was spread over several years. Billings asked for $208,000, but the council reduced it $175,482, which cuts out several new police cars and other equipment.

The budget included a final spending figure of $138.7 million after a $1 million error was discovered in the debt-service fund. Of that total, $42.3 million is in the general fund.

E-mail: rodger@desnews.com